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Friday, November 21, 2008

Ed Balls 0 Information Commissioner 1

Yesterday Ed Balls told the Commons that he could not release the full, confidential, serious case review of the case of Baby Peter because of professional advice and an earlier ruling of the Information Commissioner. As I reported, the Commissioner then issued a press statement issuing himself from Balls's decision.

Today Balls relented and announced that the report will be shown, on privy council terms, to five MPs, including Lynne Featherstone and David Laws.

It would be interesting to know if the original decision came from Balls or his civil servants and how enthusiastic he was to overturn it.

1 comment:

Ed Balls is looking flaky. OK, it may be his advisers, but he makes the decisions. Possibly putting child protection and education together was a serious mistake. Certainly having the same person among Haringey's elected Members responsible for both is causing a huge problem, with head teachers supporting her on schools, and massive criticism of her (but support from Ed Balls) on child protection. Lynne's blog suggests the inspectors have decided not to go there, which if true is a huge mistake and will bring allegations of whitewash. If you are a local Councillor and cannot stand the heat, get out of the kitchen...